Montana Horseshoe Fire May Have Burned Homes

The Horseshoe fire, burning near Clarkston north of Bozeman may have destroyed some homes after it began on Monday. Gallatin County Patrol Captain Jake Wagner explains how the blaze began.

“Roughly four o’clock in the afternoon, the sheriff’s office received a call of a wildland fire that had just started in that area of Clarkson along old gulch road,” Wagner said. “We responded as well as many of local fire agencies from the area. The fire was a quick moving fire moving through a rural, but residential area.”

Wagner says there are still a lot of unknown concerning the fire, including how much damage it has caused and how it started.

“There were affected buildings,” Wagner said. “By the end of the day we hope to get a count on how many structures and what type those structures were, but right now we don’t have any preliminary numbers. As far as how it started, we do not have anything exact. We are not going to discuss the exact details at this point because it is an open investigation being conducted by the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.”

The fire is estimated to be larger than 2,000 acres, but even though some buildings have been hit, Wagner says there aren’t any evacuation orders yet.